Ambushed!

by B. J Daniels

  Molly didn’t want to leave here and go back to town. She’d felt so safe on the ranch with Cash and his family that she’d put Vince and Angel out of her mind for a while. The men would be looking for her back in town. Could be waiting for her in the shadows around Cash’s house. She couldn’t jeopardize his life by not warning him.

  To her surprise, Shelby hugged her as they were leaving. Molly saw Cash’s surprise—and the frown when Dusty also hugged her. He didn’t want her getting any closer to his family, she realized. Why was that?

  Did he regret their lovemaking? Or was he just keeping her at arm’s length until he knew who she was, afraid of getting involved with a woman who might be…say, the daughter of a known criminal, she thought ruefully.

  Cash said little as they left the ranch. She debated what to tell him. His silence scared her.

  “I need to tell you something,” she said as they neared town. She had to tell him the truth. She had to warn him about Vince and Angel.

  “Can it wait?” he asked as he pulled up in front of the sheriff’s office. “I just need to run in here for a minute, then we can go back to the house. We can talk there, all right?”

  He didn’t give her a chance to argue. He hopped out of the pickup. She watched him unlock his office and step inside, the light coming on behind the blinds.

  ONCE INSIDE HIS OFFICE, Cash sat down at the computer and typed in a description of the men, suspecting there might be a warrant out on them since Molly’s prints had come up on the FBI’s radar.

  Still, he was surprised when he got a hit. There was an APB out on two men matching their descriptions. Their names were Vince Winslow and Angel Edwards, and both were wanted for questioning by the Las Vegas Police Department in the murder of a man named Lanny Giliano.

  “Lanny?” That was the name of the man Molly had called last night. Cash put his head in his hands. What the hell was Molly mixed up in?

  There was no reason to run the prints of the two men. Vince Winslow and Angel Edwards were in Antelope Flats. Nor did it take much to figure out why. They were here because of Molly.

  He picked up the phone and called the Las Vegas Police Department, got the detective in the Lanny Giliano case on the line and told him he’d seen Vince and Angel.

  As the detective filled him in, Cash stared out through the blinds at his pickup and Molly. He could see her dark silhouette in the front seat.

  A few minutes later, he hung up, opened his desk drawer and took out his gun. Officially, he’d been relieved of duty by Mathews. He’d have to work around that small problem. As he strapped on the gun, he thought about the chilling news the Vegas homicide detective had given him.

  Vince and Angel were dangerous monsters who’d mutilated a man in Vegas before they killed him. Lanny Giliano. A man who’d been in on a diamond heist with them fifteen years ago.

  The same man Molly had tried to call last night from the phone in Cash’s den.

  He sat for a moment, stunned by what he’d learned. As he started to rise from his desk, he saw that he’d gotten a message while he was on the line with the detective. He hurriedly retrieved it.

  “This is Greg at the Dew Drop Inn near Bozeman? You left me a message? I had to go through my records but I can tell you who was working the night you asked about seven years ago.” The man sounded pleased that he kept such good accounts. Not half as pleased as Cash.

  The guy cleared his throat and continued. “The bartender on duty that night was Teresa Clark. Everyone called her T.C. Last I heard she was out in Seattle. Hope that helps you.” The message ended.

  Teresa Clark. The woman who was murdered at the Mello Dee.

  He picked up the phone and called State Investigator John Mathews.

  MOLLY SLID DOWN IN THE SEAT a little. Main Street was empty. No cars cruised by. But still she cracked her window so she could hear if anyone approached the truck on foot. She wished Cash would hurry. She watched the light in his office, could see his shadow moving around inside. She was anxious for him to return, anxious to end this.

  “Why won’t you let me tell you the truth?” she asked, staring at his shadow through the blinds.

  She knew now that she couldn’t just leave tonight without telling him about Vince and Angel. She couldn’t leave him here without knowing that he was in danger. She had led Vince and Angel here. They could find out that she’d been staying with the sheriff. They would think he knew where she was.

  She shuddered as she imagined what they might do to him. Whether Cash wanted to hear it or not, she was going to tell him everything.

  She hated to think how he would take finding out that she wasn’t Jasmine, wasn’t the woman he’d loved and lost, especially after their lovemaking today.

  She watched the street, her anxiety growing. Hurry up, Cash. If he didn’t come out soon, she was going in. He would listen to her. She would make him.

  She shivered and looked over, noticing Cash’s jean jacket on the seat between them. She picked it up. He wouldn’t mind if she put it on. One of the pockets bulged. She remembered him in the jacket earlier that morning on the ride. The pockets had been empty then.

  Curious, she pulled the folded paper out. Did this have something to do with the urgent call he’d received during dinner about the murder at the Mello Dee?

  She saw at once that the sheet was a fax and, even in the faint light coming through the blinds of his office, she could read the words FBI and fingerprints. Her heart stopped. Cash had gotten the results. That’s what the phone call had been. He’d said it would take at least a week. Maybe two. He’d lied to her?

  He knew she wasn’t Jasmine! When was he going to tell her? And what would he do now?

  She didn’t need to read the report. She knew she wasn’t Jasmine Wolfe and that her fingerprints wouldn’t match. She started to refold the fax, not realizing Cash had come out of his office.

  She looked up. He was standing at the driver’s side window looking in at her. Her heart stopped. He opened the door and she saw that he had a small box of cinnamon rolls in his hands and was wearing a gun.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cash looked from her to the fax in her hand.

  “Why haven’t you said anything?” Her voice came out a whisper.

  He took the report from her hand, angry with himself for leaving it in the truck. Had he wanted her to find it? “Did you read it?”

  “I didn’t have to,” she said. “I tried to tell you earlier. You stopped me.”

  He looked over at her as he put the key into the ignition and started the pickup. “I didn’t want to hear that you weren’t Jasmine.” He saw the effect his words had on her and wished he could rein them back in. “I’m sorry, what I meant was—”

  “You don’t have to apologize. I know how badly you wanted me to be Jasmine,” she said. “I’m sorry I disappointed you. I can see how much you loved her, how much you wanted her back.”

  He shut off the engine and raked a hand through his hair. “Look, I know about Vince Winslow and Angel Edwards. I know you tried to call Lanny Giliano last night from my phone in the den. I know about the Hollywood diamond heist fifteen years ago with another man, Max Burke. Max got killed. Vince and Angel got fifteen years. They just got out. I know Lanny is dead—”

  “He’s dead?”

  “Sorry,” he said seeing her eyes well with tears.

  “I knew he was dead. I was just hoping…”

  “Why are Vince and Angel in town?”

  “They’re looking for me. They plan to kill me—after I tell them where the diamonds are from the heist. They think I know.”

  “Why would you know?”

  “My father was the third man in the heist, Max Burke, better known as the Great Maximilian Burke, magician and thief.”

  “Do you have the diamonds?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t have any idea where they are, but Vince and Angel won’t believe that. My father had the diamonds after the heist. I was the last person to se
e him alive. But he didn’t live long enough to tell me what he did with them. Vince saw Max say something to me but it had nothing to do with the diamonds. All Max said was, ‘I’m sorry, kiddo. I’ll try to make it up to you.’ Then he died.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Molly looked over at him. “My father was shot down by police in the street when he tried to get away. He died in my arms. I was fourteen.” She looked away, but nothing could hide the pain. “I’m the daughter of a thief. Now you know.”

  How could he have ever thought she was Jasmine? This woman felt so much, so deeply. “That must have been horrible for you. What about your mother?”

  “She died when I was a baby.”

  “What did you do after your father died?”

  “I ran.” She looked over at him. “That’s what I’ve been doing the past fifteen years—running. I knew Vince and Angel could get out at any time. That’s what I was doing when I came here, running from them. When I saw the photograph and story in the newspaper about Jasmine and saw the resemblance… I needed a place to hide for a while until Vince and Angel were picked up. I knew they murdered Lanny even though the police wouldn’t tell me anything when I called.” Her eyes filled with tears. She wiped at them, biting her lower lip in a way that he knew Jasmine never had. “I hated lying to you.”

  “We’ve both been lying to each other,” he said and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly. Her story matched what the Las Vegas police had told him. He would have believed her even if it hadn’t. Whatever reason her prints came up on the FBI’s system, it must have something to do with her father. He pushed it out of his mind. All that mattered was keeping her safe. For the moment.

  “Let’s talk about this at home,” he said. Home. He’d actually called that rambling old house home?

  “No,” she said, grabbing his arm. “Vince and Angel could be there. You don’t know these men. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill you.”

  He smiled. “I called Mathews. He’s got highway patrol looking for them right now.” She was worried about getting him killed now? “Vince and Angel aren’t waiting for us. This morning when I fixed your car so you couldn’t leave I found a global positioning device on it.”

  “That’s how they found me? I didn’t think they were that smart.”

  “Prison is a great crime school.”

  Her eyes widened. “They could have killed me in Vegas. Why track me?”

  “They must have thought you would lead them to the diamonds.”

  “Instead, I led them to you,” she said, tears in her eyes as she looked over at him.

  “I put the GPS on a coal car heading south and sent Vince and Angel on a wild-goose chase until I could find out why you were so afraid of them. I couldn’t help but notice your reaction when you saw them.”

  “They’ll be back,” she said, looking afraid. “Only now they’ll be even more angry and they’ll come to the last place they tracked me. You.” She groaned. “You shouldn’t have done that. You don’t know what these men are capable of.”

  “You don’t know what I’m capable of,” he said. “There’s an APB out on them. They’ll get picked up.”

  She looked skeptical.

  “Or I’ll deal with them.” He drove toward the house. “I want you to get your things. I’m taking you to the family lake cabin. Vince and Angel won’t be able to find you there.”

  “You know they’ll come back to the house, that’s why you want to get rid of me. You think you’ll lay a trap for them. Well I’m not leaving you alone to face them.”

  He glanced over at her, ready to more than argue the point, but he was distracted at the sight of an SUV parked in front of his house. A rental. He parked behind it with a curse. “Stay here.”

  As he stepped out of the pickup, he heard the squeak of the porch swing. Bernard Wolfe was sprawled on it as if he’d been waiting for some time. Behind him, Cash heard Molly open her door and get out.

  Cash swore under his breath. He had to get Molly out of town and right away.

  “I WANT TO TALK TO MY SISTER alone,” Bernard said, getting to his feet and coming across the porch to meet them.

  Cash started to tell him it would be a cold day in hell before that happened.

  “Could you leave us alone?” Molly asked. “Please. I really do need to talk to my stepbrother.”

  Cash saw Bernard’s jaw tighten at the word stepbrother. Cash looked over at Molly. He wasn’t leaving her alone with Bernard. What the hell was she thinking?

  “Please,” she said. “Bernard looks like he could use a drink. You don’t mind if I show him to your bar, do you?”

  Hell yes, he minded and she knew it. What was she up to? Whatever it was, he didn’t like it. But he also couldn’t keep her from talking to Bernard, short of locking her up in his jail. Even then, he figured Bernard would spring her.

  “I’ll be right here if you need me,” Cash said, crossing his arms, feet planted on the porch. “Make it quick.”

  MOLLY OPENED THE DOOR to the house, amazed Cash still hadn’t bothered to lock it when they’d left. She hoped Vince and Angel hadn’t gotten wise to the wild-goose chase and doubled back already. She worried that Cash would underestimate Vince and Angel. It would be his last mistake.

  She stepped inside, turning on the lights as she led Bernard to the living room.

  All the color had drained from his face. “Jasmine. It really is you.”

  She didn’t correct him. Something about his demeanor put her on guard even though she couldn’t believe he would try to hurt her, not with Cash right outside the door.

  “When Kerrington told me you were alive…” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. “I really could use that drink.”

  She motioned toward the bar. As Bernard poured himself a drink, she noticed that his hands were shaking. She declined when he offered to make her one as well.

  He was visibly nervous. She watched him look around the room, then at her. “Kerrington says you have amnesia.”

  “You seem nervous, Bernard,” she said mimicking Jasmine’s voice. “Are you worried that I’m going to remember what happened the day I disappeared?”

  He froze. “You remember?”

  Molly thought about the woman whose life she’d stepped into. Didn’t she owe Jasmine? Karma-wise no doubt about it. But the truth was, Molly couldn’t walk away and let Cash continue living under this veil of suspicion. She owed him. If she could find out what happened to the woman he’d loved, she had to try. And as long as the people who’d been closest to her still thought she was Jasmine…

  “You didn’t want me marrying the sheriff,” she said.

  “You weren’t going to marry him,” Bernard said scowling at her as he took a drink.

  “I loved him.”

  Bernard’s laugh cut her to the quick. “You made fun of the fool with me and Kerrington. Maybe you really don’t remember, but the three of us used to go to that bar where you and Kerrington hung out all the time. You would tell stories about your cowboy. Hell, you were sleeping with Kerrington. The only reason you said you were engaged to the sheriff was to piss off your father. And drive Kerrington crazy. If the sheriff found out what you were really up to…”

  “Someone tried to kill me.”

  “Like I said. If your sheriff found out what you were really up to…”

  “Cash didn’t try to kill me.”

  “Well, don’t look at me.”

  “You had the most to gain. You stood to inherit everything with me out of the way.”

  He took another sip of his drink. “I’ll admit I haven’t missed you. All those years of trying to keep you out of trouble. But you’re barking up the wrong tree if you think I was the one who did this to you.” His laugh was self-deprecating. “Hell, Jazz, I was half in love with you myself. But I’m sure you know that.”

  Her shock must have shown.

  “Or maybe not. Even though we weren’t related by blood, you never thought of
me as anything more than a brother.” He sounded bitter. “You ridiculed me behind my back as badly as you did everyone else, didn’t you?” He nodded. “I suspected as much. But that’s all water under the bridge since you don’t remember it,” he said sarcastically.

  “I’m sorry.” Jasmine had obviously hurt him badly. And not just him. Kerrington, too. Sandra and Patty. And Cash?

  “Sorry?” Bernard said, as if he’d never heard the word come out of Jasmine’s mouth. “You’re sorry?” He drained his glass and put it down a little too hard on the bar. “What are you sorry for, Jazz? Sorry that you hurt people? Or sorry that for seven years we’ve been free of you and your games?”

  She held her ground. He was inches from her now, his dark eyes hateful.

  “Or are you sorry that one of us finally had enough and tried to kill you?” he asked, his voice hoarse with emotion. “Any one of us wanted you dead at one point or another. Kerrington. Sandra. Patty. Me. I just never had the stomach for murder.”

  “Really?” She played the card up her sleeve. “My memory is starting to come back, Bernard. It’s just a matter of time before I know which one of you did it.”

  His face went ashen, his breath coming hard. “It wasn’t me. I’ll give you half of everything. But if you try to take it all by trying to frame me, I warn you I’ll—”

  “What will you do?” Cash asked from the doorway.

  Bernard swung around in obvious surprise, as if he’d forgotten about Cash. “Just a little family matter,” Bernard said and gave Molly a knowing look as he brushed past her and left.

  Molly realized she was trembling uncontrollably. She’d thought by telling him that she remembered the day she disappeared, he would be frightened. Instead, he was furious, thinking she would try to frame him?

  “What the hell are you trying to do?” Cash grabbed her by her upper arms. “Get yourself killed?”